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Star Stories with Ian Lauer

Ian Lauer

Retelling ancient star myths and uncovering the knowledge within them.

Every culture that has ever existed looked up at the same sky.
The same Orion. The same Pleiades. The same river of stars cutting across the darkness.

And almost every one of them, whether separated by oceans, language, or centuries, looked at them, and told a story about what they saw. Stories about hunters and lovers and gods and monsters. Stories that survived wars, migrations, and the collapse of entire civilizations. Stories that were passed down, generation after generation, for thousands of years.

Star Stories brings those stories back to life.

Each episode takes a constellation, a star, or a region of the night sky, and retells the ancient myths and legends that human cultures built around it.

The storytelling is immersive and narrative, retold in a modern format. At the end, we decode what information these cultures were embedding into the story.

From the deserts of Ancient Egypt to the frozen lands of the Nordic people, we tell the stories from cultures around the world, to reconnect you to the night sky.

Hosted by Ian Lauer. A Stargazer Studios production.

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21 episodes
weekly
Avg 21 min
English

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Episodes 21

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Monday · 13 min
1770 Solar Storm | Star Stories Notebook
Did Captain James Cook witness a solar storm bigger than the famous Carrington Event of 1859? In this episode, we explore a new paper that says this may be the case. It explores a Chinese chronicle that documents a massive solar storm from 1770, and argues that it may be the biggest solar storm ever documented. This is a new format for me called "Star Stories Notebook". During my research into star myths, I come across a lot of interesting things that don't fit into a typical star story...but I still find them fascinating. And I figured if I found it cool, you would too!
October 26 · 20 min
Algol | The Demon Star
Tonight, we're looking at the constellation Perseus. In that constellation, he's said to be holding the head of Medusa, and the eye of Medusa is a star that blinks - a star called Algol, also known as the Demon Star. It's changing brightness was first discovered in the 1700s. But a team of researchers believe the ancient Egyptians were aware of, and tracked, the variability of Algol's brightness. In this episode, we retell the story of how Perseus obtained the head of Medusa. And we'll explore why this star has such negativity associated with it...because who knows, maybe there's a reason why the ancient Egyptians were tracking it.
October 19 · 15 min
Coma Berenices | A Celestial Offering
Tonight, we’re looking at a particularly strange constellation. It's about…hair. The constellation I’m talking about is Coma Berenices. A small, faint star pattern just above Virgo. It reaches its highest point at midnight at the beginning of Springtime. Tonight’s story comes to us from ancient Greece, and it’s a unique one…because it’s about someone who was a real person. It was written about 2270 years ago, during the time when this person was alive. There’s some interesting things to uncover there, but the big thing I want to dive into is this idea that the story might be a lot older than when we first see it written down. Because in different parts of the world, there’s some similarities between each tale that, the more you look into, the harder it becomes to ignore. But first, let’s make sure we understand the story about this hair. So let’s dive into the story…about the hair of Berenices.
October 12 · 17 min
Summer Triangle | The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
Tonight, we’re looking at the Summer Triangle, and we'll be hearing a story that comes to us from ancient China. The earliest known reference to this tale is from 2,600 years ago. And the fascinating part about this story is that, as the ages progressed, we can see the story evolve over time to a full narrative. Parts were being changed and updated as time went on. But tonight’s version is going to be based on a version written about 1500 years ago. And afterwards, we’ll talk about how this story shifted from the original version, to one that turned into the Qixi festival that’s still celebrated today. We’ll also go into how this story might have ancient roots that connect it with a culture across the pacific ocean, which could mean this story is more than 20,000 years old. But first, let’s return to the woman, tirelessly weaving in heaven.
October 5 · 29 min
Auriga | The Fall of Phaethon
Tonight, we're looking at the constellation Aruiga, the Charioteer. And we'll be telling a tale from Greek mythology, about the famous fall of Phaethon. While many know this story as a lesson of the consequences of ego and hubris, the famous ancient philosopher Plato say this tale is actually transmitting ancient knowledge about the precession of the equinoxes. So let's dive into the story, and see why some people think Plato could be right.
September 28 · 16 min
Orion | The Man Who Cut Off His Own Arm
Tonight we're going to the Philippines. More specifically, to the southern island of the Bukidnon people, a story which was written down in the early twentieth century. It's about a hunter named Magbangal. But what makes it fascinating isn't just what happens to Magbangal. It's what happens afterward. Because when the story is finished, almost everything inside it ends up in the sky. And together, those stars form something that was incredibly important to the people watching them.
September 21 · 11 min
Sun & Moon | The Thorny Road
Tonight we're looking at the Sun and the Moon. This story comes from the Hausa people of northern Nigeria. And it's a very simple story. But it answers a very strange question. Why does the Sun chase the Moon? And the incredible part about this story? There's fantastic observational astronomy encoded within such a short tale. So let's go back to a time when they weren't enemies. Because once you hear what happened... you might understand why the Sun has never stopped chasing him.
September 14 · 22 min
Northern Crown | A Ring in the Grass
Tonight we're looking at the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Crown. And for more than a century, books, astronomy websites and planetarium stories have connected that circle with a Native American tale called The Celestial Sisters. It's usually described as a Shawnee story about Corona Borealis. Except I went back and found the oldest published version I could verify. And Corona Borealis isn't mentioned at all. And that sent me down one of those rabbit holes where every answer creates another problem. So join me as we retell this tale, and dive into what I found about it.
September 7 · 25 min
Big Dipper | A Monster in the Woods
Tonight we're looking at the Big Dipper. It's a story about the Cosmic Hunt, and it comes from the Haudenosaunee, who resided in what's now New York and southern Ontario. This story contains a tiny, very specific detail that, when you first hear it, you wouldn’t even notice. But this tiny detail shows up in stories told on the other side of the world, by people who could not possibly have met. A researcher spent decades cataloguing tens of thousands of these stories specifically to find things like it. And when he wrote up what he found, he said there could only be one explanation or it. So when you listen to this story, keep a look out for that small detail.
August 31 · 21 min
Pleiades | The Sisters and the Thing That Follows
Tonight we're looking at the Pleiades. The one I want to tell you tonight is from the Kokatha people, who live in the Great Victoria Desert in South Australia. The tale I’m going to tell is just going to be my way of telling it in a modern format. But just remember that those communities are still there and the story is still theirs. And to anyone who speaks these languages, my apologies in advance for how I handle the names. Now hidden inside it is something that a team of astronomers found that absolutely blew my mind when I learned about it. It is one of the single most impressive observations I have ever come across in any culture, anywhere. So stay with me through the story. Because the decode on this one is worth it.
August 24 · 30 min
Andromeda | The Chained Beauty
Tonight we're looking at a constellation called Andromeda. When most people in the astro world hear that word, they immediately think of the Andromeda galaxy, not the constellation. But this story’s focus is on the tale behind Andromeda, which comes to us from Greek mythology. This story, which is just a small piece in a greater story, contains six constellations, all relatively close to each other in the night sky. When viewed together, tell a story from long ago. But this story goes back much further than most people think. So with that, let's find out how she ended up with the name, "The Chained Beauty".
August 17 · 18 min
Moon | The One Who Wanted to Be the Sun
Tonight's story comes to us from the Mexica, the people most of us call the Aztecs, a myth written down in the fifteen hundreds, based on a much older tradition. Many say there's a face on the Moon. But to the Aztecs, they saw a rabbit. And don't let the fact that it's a rabbit fool you, because this story is filled with drama, fire, sacrifice, and punishment. So let's go back to the beginning. And when I say the beginning, I mean the beginning of this world. The one we’re in today. Because this world where you and I live in…isn’t the first.
August 10 · 22 min
Solar Eclipse | The Creature that Chases the Sun
Tonight's story comes from the Nordic people. A story written down on the small island of Iceland. Almost everything we know about Norse mythology comes to us through two books that were written down in medieval Iceland. And inside those books is a story about what happens when, for a brief moment in time, the Sun goes dark. A total solar eclipse. So let's go back to the time of the people we call Vikings. Places of deep cold and freezing water. Let's go back to learn what they thought was happening when the Sun goes missing.
August 3 · 25 min
Milky Way | The Stars That Were Never Named
Tonight we’ll be telling a story about the stars and the Milky Way. A story about a Coyote, and how the stars in the sky came to be. We are looking at it through the eyes of the people most of us know as the Navajo, whose homeland stretches across much of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. To put yourself in this tale, I need you to do something first. Take everything you know about the world and set it down for a minute. Because where we are going, none of it exists. At least...not yet.
July 27 · 43 min
Scorpius | The Bloody Fish Hook in the Sky
Tonight, we’re sitting under the band of light that we call the Milky Way, where we’ll be telling the tale of the legendary demigod Maui. He’s typically associated with the constellation Scorpius. But instead of a scorpion, the tail and stinger are Maui’s bloody fish hook. And, unlike many stories we’re used to, Maui doesn’t actually belong to one constellation. Instead, he moves through the sky, from one constellation to another. The story of Maui appears across Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, and dozens of islands scattered across the Pacific, each version with its own specific details and local flavor. It's a living tradition, so we must respect that. For tonight, I’ll be telling a blend of these myths as one story. And much like the life of other great characters, your Orions, your Thors, Maui’s story is rich and full of adventure. Maui’s full name, Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, translates to Maui-topknot-of-Taranga. It’s the perfect description for him when we talk about the astronomy of this myth, which, as always, we’ll reveal at the end of the story. But in terms of the myth, it’s a description of how this demigod came to be, from the hair of Taranga, his mother. However, Taranga isn’t excited about her baby. Instead, she’s going to do something that, for those of us today, is unthinkable. She’s about to abandon her baby in the ocean.
July 20 · 24 min
South Star | The Missing Pole Star of the Southern Sky
Tonight we're looking at the skies of the southern hemisphere. And I'm going to tell you a story that is so remarkable, it proves this tale is not just a myth…but a memory. The focus of tonight’s story is in the southern sky, where the stars wheel around an empty point. But it wasn't always empty. It's a tale about a great south star that once ruled over the southern sky. A southern pole star. And what happened when it lost its place in the sky. This tale comes from the Palawa people, aboriginals from the island of Tasmania, which is just south of mainland Australia. The Palawa people paid an unimaginable price for contact with the British, and that history matters when we share their stories. So let's go back. To the very beginning. When the world was young and the ice was thick and a powerful being made something so terrible and broken that his own brother had to do intervene. And that intervention would leave one of them dead.
July 9 · 35 min
Orion | The Downfall of Earth's Greatest Hunter
Orion is probably the most recognizable star pattern in the night sky. Rivaling the Pleiades, rivaling the Big Dipper. The story of Orion is considered to be one of the oldest stories in the world. At least, some parts of it. Some say it’s thousands of years old , others say maybe even a hundred thousand. It makes you wonder…what parts of the myth are new…and what parts have the essence of the original telling? Tonight we're looking at him through the eyes of Greek mythology. And even within Greek tradition there are multiple versions. We're going to pull from some of the oldest sources we have, the ones written closest to the original telling. Someone who was gifted with so much…but still wanted more.
July 2 · 21 min
Sun | The God Who Butchers the Night
Tonight, we’re not looking at a particular constellation or pattern in the sky. Tonight, we’re looking at the thing we see every day: the Sun. And I’m going to tell you a story about why it has to fight its way into the sky every single morning. This story comes from the Aztecs, who built one of the greatest empires in the history of the Americas. Their civilization centered on Tenochtitlan, where Mexico City stands today. This tale is one of the most important myths they had. In fact, it was so important that they built their greatest temple in honor of it. It’s a myth that plays out in the sky every single day. And it all takes place on a mountain called Coatepec, the Hill of Serpents, which is where our story begins.
June 21 · 22 min
North Star | The Impossible Climb
Tonight I’ll be telling a tale about a star in the sky that everyone has heard of. It’s not the biggest star, or the brightest. But for a long time, it was one of the most important stars in history. It’s a star called Polaris. Or as we know it as, the North Star. This story comes from a group whose ancestral lands span the high desert of the United States Southwest: the Paiute. They knew the landscape of the desert intimately, and they read the night sky the way you read a map. Because for them, it was one. But our story doesn’t start in the sky. It starts with a young mountain sheep who wanted nothing more than to make his father proud. This is Star Stories with Ian Lauer, where we sit together under the stars and retell ancient stories told about the night sky, and uncover the ancient knowledge hidden inside the world's oldest myths.
June 11 · 21 min
Big Dipper | A Sacrifice Written in the Stars
An ancient story from the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes tells us that the stars of the Big Dipper is a memorial, written in the night sky for anyone willing to look up and listen. They saw an animal. A hunter, a father, a hero. They called him The Great Fisher. Not a fisherman with a rod and a line, but an animal. A fierce, weasel-like creature found in the forests of the Great Lakes. But tonight's story doesn't start with him. It starts with his son, Little Fisher. And a hunt in a frozen world that's about to change the world forever. This is Star Stories with Ian Lauer, where we sit together under the stars and uncover the ancient knowledge hidden inside the world's oldest myths.

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